Comfort Heating & Cooling

Review: Approx 6 years ago we purchased a heat pump from this business. The owner installed and has been the only serviceman providing service to our unit for the past 6 years. Approx 6 months after the unit was installed, it stopped working. We contacted the owner and he came to look at the unit. After approx. 10 mns, he stated he "reset" the unit and it should be fine. This particular situation has happened several times a year, for the entire 6 years we have had the unit. When this happens, we no longer have air in the home, and we have to endure the house at a temperature upstairs of appox. 90 degrees or more. It usually takes the owner a couple days to come to our home, and then approx. 10 minutes to fix the problem. Each time we pay approximately 75.00 for the repair, sometimes more. I have asked the owner multiple times why we continue to have this problem. It is not typical, and it is very upsetting and inconvenient for me and my family. I have never received a response. Approx one month ago he was out to my home for the same problem. The owner knew I was upset about this happening again, and I questioned him again about why this continued. I still received no response, however he did not bill us for service this day. On July 3, 2013, I came home to a house with no air again. My husband contacted the owner and asked for a return call. On July 4th, my husband again called and asked for a return call. After several hours, I contacted both numbers listed and still was not able to contact the owner. The business advertisement states 24 hour emergency service (when available). I continued to call several times throughout the day, and spoke with the owner's mother on two occasions, and once she refused to talk with me. I was told she did not know where the owner was and I was offered no help. With my home climbing above 90 degrees, I contacted another serviceman that I found in the phone book. He arrived at my house within one hour and was able to "reset" my unit. However, he stated this was only a temporary fix, and the circuit board of the unit needed to be replaced. He stated that the problem for the past 6 years appeared to have always been the circuit board, and rather than fix the problem correctly, the man that had been coming to our home had just taken the ten minutes to reset it, collect his fee, and knew that it was not correctly fixed. This however, gave him an easy job to continue coming out to do every couple of months. In other words, he continued to come spend 10 minutes, collect his fee, rather than fix the problem correctly. He knew if the problem were fixed correctly, he would probably no longer be able to come collect money from myself every couple of months. I have asked the owner to contact me multiple times to discuss this problem. He has failed to return my calls. This unit has a ten year warranty. I feel he was taking advantage of me and taking my money for the past 6 years, rather than fix a problem that was under warranty. I also feel that once the warranty time had expired, he would probably have then told us we needed a new unit.Desired Settlement: I would like an explanation from the owner explaining why he continued to take advantage of this situation for the past 6 years, and I would like my repair fees refunded for the past visits he has made to my house without fixing the problem.

Business

Response:

In response to I.D. #[redacted]. Thank you for being patient with me first of all. The past several weeks have been very hard and trying on my family. There has been a lot of sickness. In response to a unit that was installed 6 years ago; after the first six months there was a service call at the customer's home. It was fall of the year when cool was being switched over to heat. I found the control board was locked out. According to the manufacturer, the reason this was happening was because pressures would switch over the heating and cooling valve so hard and quick it would trip the control board off. Manufacturer admitted to having issues with boards and said it would be resolved soon. I reset the board at no charge to the customer and explained what the manufacturer told me to the husband. At the beginning of the cooling season of the following year, I received a service call from customer. It was the control board locked out again, so I ordered a new one, installed it at no charge, and appoligized for any inconvience to them. To give the history of customer's system, another control board was installed on 5th year. The parts were under warranty but labor was not. This was only time a service call was charged and it was discounted. On another occasion the breaker was tripped off at the air handler: this was an unrelated incident. This could have been a power surge from a storm. Several times the unit was reset and customer was not charged. Twice over the years they were charged $10 a visit, 1/8th of regular service charge rate. This is quite a difference from what the customer is claiming $75 per visit. What an exageration. In response to July 4 service call, I was on vacation and did not have my cell phone on. The customer's husband left a message at 8:30 pm on July 3rd. On July 4th customer called office number and spoke with my mom. She asked for her name and number and told her that she would give me the message when she spoke with me. Approximately 1/2 hour later customer calls back being demanding and extremely rude, she was told again that mom would give me the message when she spoke with me. A little later customer calls again being rude, ranting, raving and demanding, at this point mom had enough and hung up on her. When I spoke with mom and listened to my voice mails I did not return her call because she stated the problem had been resolved thru another contractor. At Comfort Heating and Cooling we take pride in our work and strive to be one of the best as you can see at A+Revdex.com rating. We have been in business over 10 years and this has been our 1st complaint. We treat our customers like part of the family. We are sorry this customer was not satisfied. We think she was treated well. I am glad I had the pleasure of doing business with her and her husband. I hope she can resolve her anger issues. Sincerely, Julian Goad

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.The information stated by Mr. Jullian's response in definitely not accurate! In fact, it is far from accurate! We were charged at least 75.00 on EVERY VISIT HE MADE TO OUR HOME, with the exception of the one stated originally in my complaint, which was most recent! We were not charged that time because I had been complaining for the previous two months that my unit had never been fixed, and he continued to come for service calls at least 2 to 3 times a year and never fixed the problem. (This was a new unit that he sold and installed for us initially.) He NEVER told us that the company had concerns with our unit, and NEVER replaced the board on the unit as he states. On one of the last visits to my home, he notified my husband that this may need to be done, and he would order the part. However he never did. When I had the unit fixed by another company on July 4, 2013, he removed the unit and replaced it. He confirmed that the unit in our system HAD NEVER been replaced and was the original one that came with the heat pump! Was I angry?? Yes I was. Am I still angry?? Yes I am! This man took advantage of us, lied to us, provided poor service and continued to charge us a huge amount every time he came to our home....with only ONE exception. I have receipts and returned checks for every dollar paid to this man. His advertisement states he has service available 24 hours a day! We called him for two days with no response. His mother stated on day two he would call us immediately. He never did. She was rude and refused to offer any assistance! Not a way to run a business. I am not satisfied at all with any of this, and I am currently in process of filing a complaint with the licensing board that holds his license for review. I hope, if he continues to operate this company, that he is able to provide 24 hour service as his advertisement states. I would hope that he could employ a secretary at the very minimum, because his mother is not appropriately handling business calls!Regards,[redacted]